UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Deer shows up for school breakfast

RUSSELLVILLE, Ala., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Administrators at an Alabama elementary school said a deer crashed through a plate glass window and joined students in the cafeteria during breakfast.

Principal Romona Robinson of West Elementary School in Russellville said as a small group of children ate breakfast in the cafeteria Wednesday morning a small doe "plowed right into the back glass window" and crashed into the room, the Florence (Ala.) Times Daily reported Thursday.

Robinson said lunchroom workers and teachers used tables to corral the deer and keep it away from the awestruck students.

"The deer only got into the room a few feet before we were able to get her somewhat contained," Robinson said. "I grabbed two brooms and used them to guide her back outside before she could run loose through the cafeteria."

She said a teacher called her husband to take the deer to his farm.

The principal said the real trouble was cleaning up after the deer.

"We did a lot of deep cleaning. We could smell Clorox all day long," she said. "We Cloroxed everything -- tables, walls, floors, sidewalks -- you name it, we Cloroxed it."

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Baby born in car named after vehicle

POOLE, England, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A British couple said they decided to give their baby the same name as the unusual place of her birth -- Kia.

Tony Richardson, 24, and Samantha Smyth, 23, said they named baby Kia after the seven-seat Kia Carens that served as the birthing room when they arrived at a Poole, England, hospital moments too late, the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported Thursday.

The Parkside, England, couple said they had originally planned to name their baby "Tilly," but changed their minds after the unusual birth.

"We have decided she doesn't look like a Tilley and settled on Kia," Richardson said.

"I don't think we would have used Volkswagen or Citroen," Smyth said.

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Official: Take pics of subway gropers

NEW YORK, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A New York city councilman is encouraging women to snap cellphone pictures of subway gropers.

Councilman Peter Vallone said women have been helping police by snapping pictures of subway gropers and he encouraged school-aged girls to carry cellphones with built-in cameras on the subway, the New York Post reported Thursday.

New York Police Department Transit Chief James Hall told a council panel complaints of sexual abuse in subway cars increased 4 percent from 2008 to 2009. However, he said arrests of accused subway gropers decreased by 6 percent during that time.

"This should not be a part of commuting in New York," Hall said. "It's an underreported crime."

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Strange items left on London transport

LONDON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Transport for London's lost property office, which turns 75 this year, has dealt with unusual items including breast implants and bull sperm.

The office, which attempts to reconnect property owners with items left on buses, trains and trams, said some of the oddest items to pass its doors include a jar of bull sperm, a theatrical coffin, breast implants and a 14-foot-long boat, The Times of London reported Thursday.

The items, revealed in "The Book of Lists: London," also include a vasectomy kit, a garden slide, an urn of ashes and two human skulls.

Lost property office officials said they collected 170,000 items in 2008, including 36,852 books, 28,550 bags and 27,174 articles of clothing.